A Story Forgotten...

Recently I have been reading a book titled ‘My Voice Will Go with You: Teaching Tales of Milton H. Erikson’ by Milton H. Erickson and Sidney Rosen. Milton Erikson was a doctor and psychologist that practiced from the 1950’s through to the 1970’s and is credited with rewriting many of the techniques used by psychologists’ of his day. So far I have only got a couple of chapter in, but have found that many of the stories bring a smile to my face as well as being educational. 

The opening sections of the book describe some of Erikson’s beliefs. One particular belief is that, a story which is forgotten is more powerful when changing behaviour, than a story remembered. At first this seems highly illogical, how can you act upon the moral of the story when you cannot remember it?

Well it occurred to me that the essence of the story could go into your mind, and the details be forgotten. This would prevent analysis by the conscious mind and hence help prevent resistance to the moral of the story; however the essence would remain in the unconscious to be acted upon.

So Erikson was probably right, that a story that is forgotten by the conscious mind is more effective at changing behaviour, which comes largely from the unconscious...